Dozens of Head Start programs, which provide childcare and preschool education to low-income children, have been unable to access previously approved federal funding, putting some programs at risk of having to close their doors in the coming days,

The Justice Department has said that it told federal agencies to comply with a court's restraining order against the freeze.

The problem that first surfaced last week during President Donald Trump’s aborted effort to freeze federal grants.

After the confusing back and forth last week over a federal funding freeze from the Trump White House, we are learning that a local agency got caught in the middle. Fortunately, we have an update on that situation from Wednesday afternoon with some better news.

Some Head Start preschools around the country could be at risk of closing temporarily because they remain locked out of their federal funding, a problem that first surfaced last week during President Donald Trump's aborted effort to freeze federal grants.

But on Wednesday, Senator Schumer called on the United States Department of Health & Human Services to fix the payment system so that the Head Start programs can continue their work. According to Schumer, the freeze may "shutter" Head Start programs or force them to lay off staff.

As the White House paused federal grants and loans in a far-reaching executive order, early childhood education centers and states discovered Tuesday they could no longer access money they rely on to provide care for some of the nation’s neediest families and children.

Issues with a federal payment system have rattled Head Start programs across Washington in the wake of the Trump Administration's recent funding freeze.

Head Start programs were not supposed to be affected by the Trump administration’s funding freeze, but local Vermont chapters say they have not been able to access funding.